Generational Grants

Momentum for a lifetime

Grantmaking Raises Eyebrows and that Raises More Capital

Once-in-a-generation grants that move the dial

“

Our Generational Grants take a place-based approach and tie the family back to the community it’s from, while our impact investing objectives allow the Foundation to make an impact more globally.”

Kevin Phillips, Trustee and Chairman

Phillips Foundation implements a Generational Grantmaking cycle once every generation. The current generation of Trustees has selected a slate of 12 game-changer grants in Guilford County, North Carolina, providing catalytic capital to important initiatives as identified by the community.

The Foundation has served as a top donor and advocate for initiatives from a new performing arts center in Downtown Greensboro to ending chronic homelessness countywide. Other efforts include a new state-of-the-art, joint nursing school; piloting a new Family Success Center in Greensboro’s lowest-income ZIP code; endowing the Greensboro Children’s Museum to ensure it lasts as a community institution for generations to come; and funding a first-of-its-kind, replicable magnet school model, which saw an initial increase in reading proficiency from 33 to 65 percent.

By seed funding community projects, we seek to provide long-term momentum and catalyze sustainable funding sources through solidifying proof of concept. One such example is YVLifeSet, a grantee that grew to serve all youth aging out of the system in Guilford County, providing $4.8 million in cost savings to taxpayers and leading North Carolina’s Legislature to expand this program to thousands more children across the state.

Until the next generation of Trustees identify the challenges and opportunities of their time, the Foundation’s grant cycle is closed, as it focuses on its original programs and impact investing.